Well, I've been reading as much as I can about homeschooling. I took my daughter out of ps before her sophmore year was over. I've read that kids need some de-stressing time and I can she that she reallly needs it. But I find myself getting a little anxious that I should just pick up where the school left off fairly soon.(It's been about 3 weeks). My dd has been spending time doing her art thing. She sketches, paints and makes awesome jewelry! She also has 2 friends she likes to hang out with sometimes. She has been doing chores around the house and sleeps when she is tired. However when I mention working with her to put together a curriculum her eyes just glaze over!! She really wants to take a glass blowing class and some chemistry that goes along with that. Does anyone have thoughts on this? Should I let her follow her natural desires at this time and then slowly get into the basic math and english? She likes math hates language arts! School was very stressful for her and she doesn't miss it one bit. She said that she felt this huge burden lift from her shoulders when she left. So I'm thinking she still needs time to decompress but at the same time I'm a little nervous about when to get started with the core subjects. Any thoughts?_________________momof4teens

It is so close to summer, perhaps you could just let her "do her thing" as long as she is doing something viable. Blowing glass and the chemistry involved sounds interesting and her art sounds productive. Perhaps you could sneak in an end of year art essay/report on the history of Bindis or some other jewelry. That would cover writing and world history - just a thought. You could ask her if there is anything she is interested in doing for the summer like Gymnastics, swimming, or dance? That would count as PE. Summer is a fun time to get those kind of credits out of the way.

This is a good time to start planning for next year. Take your dd to homeschool supply stores, used curricula fairs, or Abeka hotel displays. Have her take some time to explore sites like rainbow resources to find ideas. My dd17 will be in 11th grade next year also, but we haven't purchased anything yet, but I have wish list items though like Uncle Eric books, Teaching Textbooks Geometry, and etc. Hope to see you around here again._________________I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow. - Woodrow Wilson.

There are always going to be a few subjects that are no fun to cover, but life isn't all about fun, and you just have to grind your way through those courses. You can, however, minimize the pain by working year-round, so the amount of not-fun work per day is two hours or less, and let her spend most of her time on the sorts of things she enjoys. Homeschooling is both efficient and flexible.

As for language arts, focus primarily on reading and writing for now and mostly ignore formal grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, and spelling. I loathed grammar myself, and promptly forgot most of it as soon as I finished it and took the test, but my love of reading and plenty of writing built up the necessary language skills anyhow. For now, just correct mistakes as you go - there will be time enough later for an overview of (basic) grammar and punctuation, and the vocabulary and spelling will develop on their own. What's most important is making sure she does plenty of reading, and it doesn't really matter what she reads, so long as it's sufficiently advanced to develop her language skills. Don't require book reports! When you have her do essays, have it be on subjects she knows a lot about already, like glass blowing, so the content comes easily and she only has to worry about structure. Reading should be associated as little as possible with schoolwork._________________Homeschool Articles - Events - Support Groups

Thanks so much for the ideas. I think those will work great. I think I'll take her to the library so she can pick out some books on subjects she is interested in and go from there. I also read in one of my homeschooling books about someone who gave her child the 10% rule. If her child read 10% of the book and still couldn't get into it she could stop and find another one. I think that would work great for my dd.
Thanks to both of you for your help._________________momof4teens